This publication contains the papers presented at the 15th European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ECSMGE), held in Athens, Greece. Considerable progress has been made in recent decades in understanding the engineering behavior of those hard soils and weak rocks that clearly fall into either the field of soil or of rock mechanics, and there have been important developments in design and construction methods to cope with them. Progress would be even more desirable, however, for those materials which fall into the ‘grey’ area between soils and rocks. They present particular challenges due to their diversity, the difficulties and problems arising in their identification and classification, their sampling and testing and in the establishment of suitable models to adequately describe their behavior. The publication aims to provide an updated overview of the existing worldwide knowledge of the geological features, engineering properties and behavior of such hard soils and weak rocks, with particular reference to the design and construction methods and problems associated with these materials. Part 4 was published post-conference and includes Conference Reports.

Geotechnical engineers are at work worldwide, contributing to sustainable living and to the creation of safe, economic and pleasant spaces to live, work and relax. With increased pressure on space and resources, particularly in cities, their expertise becomes ever more important. This book presents the proceedings of the 5th iYGEC, International Young Geotechnical Engineers' Conference, held at Marne-la-Vallée, France, from 31 August to 1 September 2013. It is also the second volume in the series Advances in Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. The papers included here cover topics such as laboratory and field testing, geology and groundwater, earthworks, soil behavior, constitutive modeling, ground improvement, earthquake, retaining structures, foundations, slope stability, tunnels and observational methods. The iYGEC conference series brings together students and young people at the start of their career in the geotechnical professions to share their experience, and this book will be of interest to all those whose work involves soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering. The cover shows Dieppe harbour breakwater project, Louis-Alexandre de Cessart, 1776-1777. © École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

More than ten years have passed since the first edition was published. During that period there have been a substantial number of changes in geotechnical engineering, especially in the applications of foundation engineering. As the world population increases, more land is needed and many soil deposits previously deemed unsuitable for residential housing or other construction projects are now being used. Such areas include problematic soil regions, mining subsidence areas, and sanitary landfills. To overcome the problems associated with these natural or man-made soil deposits, new and improved methods of analysis, design, and implementation are needed in foundation construction. As society develops and living standards rise, tall buildings, transportation facilities, and industrial complexes are increasingly being built. Because of the heavy design loads and the complicated environments, the traditional design concepts, construction materials, methods, and equipment also need improvement. Further, recent energy and material shortages have caused additional burdens on the engineering profession and brought about the need to seek alternative or cost-saving methods for foundation design and construction.

Soft soils present particular challenges to engineers and an understanding of the specific characteristics of these soils is indispensable. Laboratory techniques such as numerical modelling, theoretical analysis and constitutive modelling give new insights into soft soil material behaviour, while large-scale testing in the field provides important information in areas such as slope stability and soft soil improvements. This collection of papers from the Fourth International Conference on Soft Soil Engineering, Vancouver, 2006, presents an international appraisal of current research and new advances in engineering practices, illustrating the theory with relevant case studies. Geotechnical professionals, engineers, academics and researchers working in the areas of soft ground engineering and soft soil engineering will find this a valuable book.

The field of experimental unsaturated soil mechanics has grown considerably over the last decade. In the laboratory and in the field, innovative techniques have been introduced into mechanical, hydraulic, and geo-environmental testing. Normally, this information is widely dispersed throughout journals and conference proceedings and it is often difficult to identify suitable equipment and instrumentation for research or professional purposes. In this volume, however, the authors bring together the latest research in laboratory and field testing techniques, and the equipment employed, and examine the current state-of-the-art in a forum devoted solely to experimental unsaturated soil mechanics. The papers published in the proceedings were peer-reviewed by internationally-recognized researchers. The topics tackled by the papers include suction measurement, suction control, mechanical and hydraulic laboratory testing, geo-environmental testing, and field-testing.

"Although the triaxial compression test is presently the most widely used procedure for determining strength and stress-deformation properties of soils, there have been no books published on triaxial testing since the 1962 second edition of the landmark work The Measurement of Soil Properties in the Triaxial Test by Bishop and Henkel. It is apparent there is a need to document advances made in triaxial testing since publication of Bishop and Henkel's book and to examine the current state of the art in a forum devoted solely to triaxial testing. Because of increasing versatility brought about by recent developments in testing techniques and equipment, it is also important that the geotechnical profession be provided with an up-to-date awareness of potential uses for the triaxial test."--Overview.